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Thomas Robert Malthus
The Reverend Thomas Robert Malthus FRS (13 February 1766 – 29 December 1834) was an English cleric and scholar, influential in the fields of political economy and demography. Malthus himself used only his middle name Robert. His An Essay on the Principle of Population observed that sooner or later population will be checked by famine and disease, leading to what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. He thought that the dangers of population growth precluded progress towards a utopiansociety: "The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man". As a cleric, Malthus saw this situation as divinely imposed to teach virtuous behavior. Tossup Questions # In the last two chapters of his most famous work, this thinker digresses into a discussion of theodicy in which he asserts that the world is a "mighty process for awakening matter." This thinker recommended making streets narrower, encouraged building near marshes, and advised that people not seek cures for "ravaging diseases" because the masses are incapable of exercising moral restraint. The simple exponential growth model is named for this man, as is a catastrophe representing a return to subsistence farming. In the best-known work by this author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent, he negatively contrasted the arithmetic growth of subsistence with the geometric growth of population. For 10 points, identify this gloomy, thinker who wrote Principles of Political Economy and An Essay on the Principle of Population. # This economist flip flopped from supporting free trade to supporting custom duties as evident in two contrasting works: Observations on the Effects of the Corn Laws and The Policy of Restricting the Importation of Grain. This economist argued that an eponymous entity would be an example of surplus in a work entitled The Nature of Rent. Even though three of his works presented a theory of surplus, this economist had earlier written a 1798 work detailing inevitable scarcity due to food supply increasing arithmetically while population increased geometrically. For 10 points, name this British economist who wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population. # He explored the idea of a general glut in his Definitions in Political Economy which, along with a work in which he proposed that rent could be a source of capital re-investment, formed his theory of surplus. That work was The Nature of Rent. The model of exponential growth based on a constant rate of compound interest is named after him, as he had predicted that the arithmetic vs. geometric growth of two elements of society implies the need for war and disease or moral restraint. For 10 points, identify this British economist who predicted mass starvation in An Essay on the Principle of Population. # This man clashed with David Ricardo on the subject of the Corn Laws, as well as on the title subject of this man's work An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent. One of his theories states that one societal quantity grows geometrically while another grows arithmetically. For 10 points, name this British economist who theorized in An Essay on the Principle of Population that the world's population growth would outstrip its ability to produce food. # He supported the Corn Laws in Grounds of an Opinion and argued for an endogenous interpretation of money. In his most famous work, framed partially as a response to William Godwin's optimistic Political Justice, he argues that England's poor laws actually cause the poor to become more destitute and more numerous. His central contention was that a linear increase of available resources is naturally insufficient. For 10 points, identify this economist who made dire predictions about the inevitability of war, famine, and misery in his "Essay on Population."